INFLUENCE

This month we are taking a look at the life of Nehemiah and talking about influence, passion, and God. Specifically we are exploring how we as Christ-followers can make life-changing contributions to the Kingdom of God. This week we focused on INFLUENCE.

If you haven't read the book of Nehemiah in the Bible, I suggest you do it now, especially if you are a leader of any kind!

Nehemiah's ability to leverage his influence for the Kingdom of God was incredible.

Here's a Jewish exile, the cupbearer to the king, who convinced a Persian king to let him go home, grant him safe passage through all of his provinces, become the governor of the city, AND provide all the materials needed to rebuild the wall to protect it from outsiders.

THEN he convinced all of the leaders of the Hebrew nation to get behind the rebuilding of the wall and essentially the city.

THEN he convinced all of the people (50,000+) to drop what they were doing and get to work.

THEN he convinced the money-lenders of the day to give back everything they had taken from the Israelites, including the interest, so everyone could afford to pursue the vision of rebuilding Jerusalem.

(Not bad, eh?)

Two HUGE lessons on igniting our influence that Nehemiah exhibited for us:

Relationships are the bridge through which influence travels.

Integrity always increases influence.

Think about the relationships in your life. When you have a problem or need advice, who do you go to? The people you have deep relationships with. These are the people who influence you.

Conversely, who comes to you? Who do you have influence over? How can you leverage this relationships to love God and love people?

Think about your integrity? Does your life exemplify integrity to the point that people seek you out?